The First Time

….a trip to the cottage with the baby

I was so excited to be going to the cottage with my granddaughter for the first time. Gaelan and Winnie stayed overnight on Friday here at the house. They were in town for Josie’s birthday party and it made no sense to go back to Hamilton and then come back the next day to Toronto.

Saturday morning we took our time and explored the garden and took a short walk over to the park.

After we packed up the car we headed out and Winnie had her nap while I drove. We made one stop to grab some lunch and arrived at the dock in time to catch the ferry. Once we were at the cottage Winnie explored her new surroundings, a little cautious at first but it didn’t take long before we had to run after her to make sure she stayed out of the poison ivy. She loved being chased.

We took her to the beach but she was a little wary of the waves and didn’t want anything to do with the water. In fact she was more interested in all the inflatable toys on the beach that didn’t belong to us. Even the sand toys that I bought for her didn’t hold her attention for more than a few minutes.

The next day the sun was shining and the wind had died down somewhat so the waves weren’t as high. After breakfast we took a walk along the beach. The water levels are very high this year so there isn’t much of a beach to walk on. Luckily no one minded getting wet as we walked. Winnie loved the waves today and when we got to the rocks she loved climbing over them.

It was a very long walk so Gaelan carried Winnie on the way back to the cottage and it wasn’t long before Winnie fell sound asleep in her mother’s arms. Later in the afternoon we went back down to the beach and this time she didn’t want to get out of the water even though she was shivering.

Monday morning Winnie woke up with a tummy ache and didn’t eat much breakfast. We prepared to go home and we were only in the car a few minutes before Winnie fell sound asleep. We decided to drive until Winnie woke up. When she did wake we pulled into the closest restaurant but even then she didn’t eat much.  She drank some milk and ate a bit of yogurt. Once we were back on the road it didn’t take long before we had to pull over. I forgot how road trips and car sickness go hand in hand with young children. Needless to say Winnie felt much better after she threw up her lunch but her mom and I were not exactly thrilled to be cleaning up vomit in a parking lot with only paper towels and bottled water which were quickly purchased from the variety store across the street.

Despite the unpleasant turn of events on our trip home my first weekend trip to the cottage with my granddaughter was a wonderful experience. I hope there will be many more to come and I look forward to our next adventure together.

Cheers!

Enjoying the Peace at the Cottage

…..so happy that I opened the cottage earlier in June

On my first trip to the cottage after opening it three weeks earlier, I was really looking forward to my stay. The only big thing that I still had to do was move the fridge outside, hook it up to the propane tank and fasten the tarp to the edge of the roof to keep the rain off the fridge. I managed to do most of this on my own and the only part that I needed help with was lighting the burner at the back of the fridge while I pushed the buttons on the front. Luckily my friend’s son had arrived the day before and was able to assist me with this final step.

For the most part the weather was very nice. I took several long walks along the beach that is mostly under water this year. When I wasn’t walking, cooking or cleaning I started and finished a book called The Last Days at Cafe Leila by Donia Bijan. A lovely summer read that gave me some insight into how the lives of Iranian citizens were affected by all the political and religious unrest that has taken place since the 1930s. The story centres around the owners and staff at Cafe Leila and the children who were sent to America after their mother was murdered by the police. When the daughter is separated from her estranged husband her father asks her to come home after being apart for more than 30 years.

When I wasn’t reading I took time to go and explore and take photographs. A couple of times I had to drive to the dock to drop someone off or pick someone up from the boat; consequently, many of the photos are from that area. The rest were taken at the beach.

The shots from the beach were taken in the early evening just as the sun was setting.

The day after the previous pictures were taken the weather had become quite windy and very cool. For most of the day I wore my longer pants and sweat shirt.

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Late August – Wind, Waves and Rain

….can always tell when August rolls in

The nights get cooler in late August but it tends to warm up during day. On this last trip to the cottage the winds picked up and we had huge waves. I’ve never known the waves to come up the beach as high as they did. On our little section of beach the waves came up over a wall of sand and created an new lake in the middle of the beach. When I took these pictures the wind and the waves had already died down somewhat but the little lake remained.

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Luckily we had gone swimming the day before and the water is still quite warm.

Hopefully when I go back tomorrow the winds will stay away for awhile. When the waves are too high the barge won’t run and that means we would be stranded on the island. Not a terrible thing but my daughter has already lost one day of work because we couldn’t get off the island.

Walking, Waves, Water Foul and Wildflowers

…..I got up early enough to join my husband and Frances for our daily 5k walk

As you can see I’m not at the cottage. I decided to go see my doctor yesterday (yes, he was working on Canada Day) and get the results from my blood work. I’m happy to report that all the major things were in the good range (cholesterol, sugar levels, etc.). So why am I not on my way to cottage today, you may ask?

Last night my friend, D, called my from Christian Island and told me that she and her husband were coming home today and going back next weekend. I decided that there was no big hurry to get up to the cottage, seeing that I would be mostly alone, so instead I’m going into school today to clean up my library/art office. I was going to go in next week but I think I’m going to be too busy getting ready for our trip to Ireland.

After a quick cup of coffee, the three of us headed out on our walk. I almost always take my camera with me and today was no exception. I love the macro function on the camera and it came in handy today as I got down nice and close to the tiny wildflowers that we pass on our walk. Part of my walk turned in a run today because every time I stopped to take a picture I had to run to catch up to K and Frances.

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The morning started out a bit overcast and there was a slight wind. If you saw the waves on the lake you might have thought there were gail force winds but not so. A few metres inland the pond was as still as ice.

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This last shot is my favourite. As I zoomed into the these mini thistles I didn’t notice the blur of activity that was taking place on the stems of these plants.

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I’d better get to school before the morning completely disappears. Till later!

Snakes, Seagulls, Surf, Sunsets and Scrabble

…. I didn’t intend to create an alliteration when I took these photos

This week at the cottage I was presented with some interesting moments for taking pictures. The first happened when my friend D was leaving my place and noticed a garter snake slithering along the ground at the bottom of the deck stairs. She suggested that photos of this little guy might make an interesting contribution to my blog. Check him out!

The next day the winds came up and we were treated to huge and powerful waves on the the bay.

Later that evening, the wind died down and as I was walking along the beach I witnessed this beautiful sunset.

One of my favourite games to play at the cottage is good old fashion Scrabble. I have to admit that I wasn’t very good at it the first few times I played it but my good friend D gave me a few pointers (which I’m sure she’s regretting) and I’ve been on a bit of a winning streak. Notice the word ‘zooid’. A good one to remember. 

Oops! I guess the word ‘zooid’ was on the previous board. Anyway it’s a biological term meaning ‘a cell capable of spontaneous movement’. The word on this board that may be new to you is ‘natron’, meaning ‘a mineral, hydrated sodium carbonate’.

The picture below is of me and my Scrabble buddies, D and her daughter, Dy.

You can thank your lucky STARS that it was overcast last night so that I wasn’t able to take pictures of the night SKY and that I wasn’t interested in taking pictures of the SHOWERS today. Maybe next time. I’m home for a few days. I’ll post my weight loss progress tomorrow. TTFN